The culture of China - Part 7

A few months ago, many Chinese people and I were greatly astonished by the news that United Nations announced to officially replace using Traditional Chinese by Simplified Chinese from 2008.
Traditional Chinese was simplified from pictograph. Each component of each character is a meaningful picture, a unique ideographic which provides visual comprehensibility, e.g.「手」looks like a hand,「人」looks like a man,「國」is a Country formed with city walls surrounding a mouth (person) and a dagger-axe. The Traditional characters of today first appeared with clerical script during Han Dynasty and became stable since the 5th Century during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, traditional Chinese has many strokes, plus its complex structure make troubles to writing. Thus, simplified characters appeared in different places nationally. The Chinese government believed that the traditional Chinese was too difficult to learn and caused the problem of illiteracy in majority (mainly peasants), therefore, the government started to study character reformation in 1951 and carried out the standardized Simplified Chinese policy in 1956, with the aims to unify Chinese, make it easy to identify, fast to write and to eliminate illiteracy.
Yet over half a century has gone now, over 1.2 billion people of the 1.3 billions are still illiterate. This clearly shows that simplified Chinese does not help to eliminate illiteracy, as illiteracy is the result of ineffective social policy and frequent corruptions.
I learnt simplified Chinese at secondary school, used it for coursework and exams, since subjects like Chinese language, Chinese history and Chinese literature accept using the simplified. Otherwise, we need to write hundreds of Traditional Chinese characters for essays for these subjects, it would be so tiresome especially to write pages quickly during exams.
Using Simplified Chinese is convenient. Nevertheless, why Hong Kong people, Taiwanese and overseas Chinese oppose the United Nations' adoption of simplified Chinese? 1. Characters with more than 10 strokes have to be cut down to below 10 strokes, but those below 10 strokes were unnecessarily simplified, e.g.「馬」(horse) is already simple, but the simplified「马」seemed to have horsehair shaved; though the simplified is easier to write, it loses the sense of beauty, the visual comprehensibility and the vigorous of Chinese.
2. Some unrelated characters are simplified and look similar, but some others sharing the same component do not need to be simplified:「勸」(persuade) became「劝」,「灌」(irrigate) is still「灌」; some words are different in Traditional Chinese but are same in simplified:「乾」(dry) is「干」but「幹」(to do) is also「干」. This indeed raises the complexity.
3. Some people fear that the UN's decision of adopting simplified Chinese would be a pressure causing Chinese worldwide to abandon the Traditional characters. Furthermore, as the mainland Chinese who were born after 1956 do not know Traditional characters, a few decades later, Traditional Chinese would possibly be obsolete, then even archaeologist cannot decipher Chinese history and culture recorded with these characters. This is a risk of losing our 5,000 years old culture. Someone conjecture that it is a conspiracy to destroy Chinese culture.
From the UN's point of view, China is raising in influence nowadays, its 1.3 billion of population are using simplified Chinese in contrast with only 30 millions are using the Traditional Chinese, it is no reason to keep on using the latter administratively.
Hence, to simplify the Traditional Chinese is a consequence of evolution that no cause for much criticism should be made, it is not either any conspiracy.
Humans always prefer to pick up the easiest. Many foreign Chinese learners who are attracted by Chinese culture lose the courage to the difficult Traditional characters and turn to the simplified. Notwithstanding the new trend, Traditional Chinese can stand the test of time, and we won't lose the 5,000 years old history that easily. As long as we wish to keep the Traditional characters and to protect the traditional culture, why not we Hong Kong people, Taiwanese, or overseas Chinese learn and understand both characters ourselves?

The culture of China - Part 6

Architecture

Chinese architecture, examples of which can be found from over 2,000 years ago, has long been a hallmark of the culture. There are certain features common to Chinese architecture, regardless of specific region or use. The most important is its emphasis on width, as the wide halls of the Forbidden City serve as an example. In contrast, western architecture emphasize on height, though there are exceptions such as pagodas.
Another important feature is symmetry, which connotes a sense of grandeur as it applies to everything from palaces to farmhouses. One notable exception is in the design of gardens, which tends to be as asymmetrical as possible. Like Chinese scroll paintings, the principle underlying the garden's composition is to create enduring flow, to let the patron wander and enjoy the garden without prescription, as in nature herself. Feng shui has played an important part in structural development.

Cuisine

The overwhelmingly large variety mainly comes from the emperors hosting a banquet of 100 dishes each meal. Countless number of imperial kitchen staff and concubines were involved in the food preparation process. Overtime, many dishes became part of the everyday-citizen culture. Some of the highest quality restaurants with recipes close to the dynastic periods include Fangshan restaurant in Beihai Park Beijing and the Oriole Pavilion. Arguably all branches of Hong Kong eastern style or even American Chinese food are in some ways rooted from the original dynastic cuisines.

Leisure

A number of games and pastimes are popular within Chinese culture. The most common game is Mah Jong. The same pieces are used for other styled games such as Shanghai Solitaire. Others include Pai Gow, Pai gow poker and other bone domino games. Weiqi and Xiangqi is also popular. Ethnic games like Chinese yo-yo are also part of the culture.

The culture of China - Part 5

Arts

Different forms of art have swayed under the influence of great philosophers, teachers, religious figures and even political figures. Chinese art encompasses all facets of fine art, folk art and performance art. Porcelain pottery was one of the first forms of art in the Palaeolithic period. Early Chinese music and poetry was influenced by the Book of Songs, Confucius and the Chinese poet and statesman Qu Yuan. Chinese painting became a highly appreciated art in court circles encompassing a wide variety of Shan shui with specialized styles such as Ming Dynasty painting. Early Chinese music was based on percussion instruments, which later gave away to string and reed instruments. By the Han dynasty papercutting became a new art form after the invention of paper. Chinese opera would also be introduced and branched regionally in additional to other performance formats such as variety arts.

Martial arts

China is one of the main birth places of Eastern martial arts. The names of martial arts were called Kung Fu or its first name Wushu. China also includes the home to the well-respected Shaolin Monastery and Wudang Mountains. The first generation of art started more for the purpose of survival and warfare than art. Over time, some art forms have branched off, while others have retained a distinct Chinese flavor. Regardless, China has brewed some of the most renowned martial artists including Wong Fei Hung and many others. The arts have also co-existed with a variety of weapons including the more standard 18 arms. Legendary and controversial moves like Dim Mak are also praised and talked about within the culture.

Fashion

Different social classes in different eras boast different fashion trends. China's fashion history covers hundreds of years with some of the most colorful and diverse arrangements. Fashionable but questionable practices such as footbinding have also been part of the culture. Many symbols such as phoenix have been used for decorative as well as economic purposes.


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The culture of China - Part 4

Literature

The extensive collection of books that have been preserved since the Zhou Dynasty demonstrate just how advanced the intellectuals were at one time. Indeed, the era of the Zhou Dynasty is often looked to as the touchstone of Chinese cultural development. The Five Cardinal Points are the foundation for almost all major studies. Concepts covered within the Chinese classic texts present a wide range of subjects including poetry, astrology, astronomy, calendar, constellations and many others. Some of the most important early texts include I Ching and Shujing within the Four Books and Five Classics. Many Chinese concepts such as Yin and Yang, Qi, Four Pillars of Destiny in relation to heaven and earth were all theorized in the dynastic periods.
Notable confucianists, taoists and scholars of all classes have made significant contributions from documenting history to authoring saintly concepts that seem hundred of years ahead of time. Many novels such as Four Great Classical Novels spawned countless fictional stories. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese culture would embark on a new era with Vernacular Chinese for the common citizens. Hu Shih and Lu Xun would be pioneers in modern literature.

Music

The music of China dates back to the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BCE - 256 BCE). Some of the oldest written music dates back to Confucius's time. The first major well-documented flowering of Chinese music was for the qin during the Tang Dynasty, though it is known to have played a major part before the Han Dynasty.

The culture of China - Part 3

Language

Spoken Chinese has consisted of a number of Chinese dialects and languages throughout history. In the Ming Dynasty standard Mandarin was nationalized. Even so, it wasn't until the Republic of China era in the 1900s when there was any noticeable result in promoting a common unified language in China.
The ancient written standard was Classical Chinese. It was used for thousands of years, but was mostly reserved for scholars and intellectuals. By the 20th century, millions of citizens, especially those outside of the imperial court were illiterate[4]. Only after the May 4th Movement did the push for Vernacular Chinese begin. This allowed common citizens to read since it was modeled after the linguistics and phonology of a spoken language.

Mythology and spirituality

A large part of Chinese culture is based on the notion that a spiritual world exists. Countless methods of divination have helped answer questions, even serving as an alternate to medicine. Folklores have helped fill the gap for things that cannot be explained. There is often a blurred line between myth, religion and unexplained phenomenon. While many deities are part of the tradition, some of the most recognized holy figures include Guan Yin, Jade Emperor and Buddha. Many of the stories have since evolved into traditional Chinese holidays. Other concepts have extended to outside of mythology into spiritual symbols such as Door god and the Imperial guardian lions. Along with the belief of the holy, there is also the evil. Practices such as Taoist exorcism fighting mogwai and jiang shi with peachwood swords are just some of the concepts passed down from generations. A few Chinese fortune telling rituals are still in use today after thousands of years of refinement.